What is Buttered Coffee and Why is it Good for You?

Every weeks it seems like there’s some hot new trend that we should all be getting on board with. Earlier this month I came across an interesting article on something called buttered coffee.

It’s exactly what it sounds like, and while the idea of adding butter to your coffee might be a little shocking for some, a lot of people out there are swearing by it. Even doctors are counting its benefits. So, what’s the deal? What is buttered coffee and why is it good for you.

Well, here is the official recipe:

1 cup black coffee

1 to 2 tbsp unsalted grass-fed butter

1 to 2 tbsp medium-chain triglycerides (MCT) oil

Blend all of the ingredients into a frothy.

The MCT is a processed mixture of fat that naturally occur in coconut and palm kernel oils. MCT oils is more rapidly digested and metabolized than other types of fats, so a lot of studies have tattered it the weight loss supplement. It increases your body’s ability to burn energy while decreasing its fat storage.

MTC oil is a key component of buttered coffee but people who swear by it also say the kind of butter you use is equally as important. It must be unsalted and it must be grass-fed, just organic is not enough. The same goes for the coffee, it should also be organic. Obviously this can get pretty expensive but is it worth it?

Well, to a lot of people it is. In addition to curbing hunger and potentially aiding in weight loss, people also say it helps with energy and focus, gives greater mental clarity and sustains your coffee buzz for longer, up to six hours, while eliminating the post-caffeine crash. It also curbs jittery side effects and the acid stomach feeling that you get from drinking straight coffee.

And since it’s technically served froth, a lot of people say it taste just like a fattier latte, which doesn’t sound all that bad. Now depending on how much butter and MCT oil you use, a single cup of this stuff contains from 200-500 calories and about 45-65 grams of fat which is 100% of your daily recommended intake of saturated fat.

So, how can something that bad be good for you? This is where it gets tricky: If you were to add buttered coffee to your daily routine, you would theoretically gain anywhere from 20 to 30 pounds every year. So it’s generally recommended that you use it as a meal replacement and not a supplement.

Assuming you agree that good fats are something your body needs anyway, then that’s fine. But even people who believe that saturated fat gets unfairly demonized say they should be eaten with a meal, not as a meal.

There are also people out there who say that even if buttered coffee is not that bad for you, a traditional breakfast is still way more nutritious. Depending on what you’re eating that could be entirely true. Consuming that much butter can lead to high cholesterol, especially so if you’re not adjusting other aspects of your diet to accommodate.

Still, it’s surprising that not many doctors are warning against this. Most nutritionist say if you want to try it out, go right ahead, but you should probably get your cholesterol checked first just to make sure that it’s normal.